White House official: We’re ‘winning’ and it doesn’t matter how long shutdown lasts

There were some provocative comments from the White House on Friday morning.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a senior administration official (usually parlance for either a cabinet member or someone without “assistant” in their title) as saying: “We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us” how long the shutdown lasts “because what matters is the end result.”

Polls clearly show that more people blame Republicans than Democrats for the shutdown. The WSJ article cites a CBS poll putting the blame at 44% for congressional Republicans, and 35% for Obama and Democratic lawmakers.

The comments reflect a White House that feels stung by previous negotiations with Republicans, notably in 2011. The WSJ article quotes former White House adviser David Plouffe as saying: “We probably did too much accommodating to them.”

Sure enough, Republicans were quick to pounce.

WH: “We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us” how long shutdown lasts. Tell that to the millions affected by shutdown & #trainwreck.